There are a lot of companies recruiting throughout the whole of the UK. That’s a fact. After years of recession and stagnation following the global financial meltdown of 2008 we are seeing strong demand from the majority of the markets that we service.

Over the last few years, employers have held the power and have tended to be very selective in their hires; and insistent on interviewing multiple candidates for a particular role. Decision-making has typically been quite long and arduous – as hiring managers see a wide selection of candidates as a good reason to “take their time” and make decisions slowly.

Fast-forward to 2017 and we are seeing what we call “candidate short” markets in the majority of our sectors. This means that in many instances there are more jobs than candidates, and this causes employers to have a different approach.

Typically today, employers know that they need to move faster to secure the talent they want to recruit; and are less inclined to take as long over the selection process. Clients are making job offers much faster, as they appreciate that there isn’t the volume or quality of candidates available, so it’s quite common now for clients to hire from just one or two candidates interviewed.

It’s simply a supply and demand scenario.

The issue facing you as a candidate now is how to handle this more buoyant market? Here’s our advice.

Candidates are in a stronger position now, so it is more likely that you will be able to secure multiple job interviews. As these interviews play out, it’s now quite likely that you will receive one or more job offers. Our advice is don’t accept the first job that you are offered and wait for things to play out.

You can’t wait too long and you should never mess employers around; however for example if you go for 3x 1st interviews in a week – let the process play out with each of the 3 as it could be that the last interview you attend is the best opportunity for you.

Our advice is do not leave a job offer for more than 7 days. Keep the prospective employer informed at all times but if you have a number of options let things play out before you decide what to do.

One Response to Should I take the first job I’m offered? Advice on dealing with multiple job interviews & offers.

“Nice littler article. Best approach for me is honesty between the parties – let’s be honest neither party can be 100% going into the interviews quite often jobs specs and CVs don’t necessarily cover everything. Using people like yourselves, employers who ultimately pay you for finding candidates should also not be afraid to seek advice from yourselves. Quite often you have long standing relationships with the candidates and may be able to help them along. You still get paid the same so they’re actually getting some added value from the process.